A “HIERARCHY” of gore and horror heroines; exclusive pics

Currently making the festival rounds, the short horror film HIERARCHY has a couple of big names from cult genre circles in its cast. Read on for exclusive pics and comments on this grisly revenge story.

“I wanted to make THE HIERARCHY like a feature film with all the boring parts cut out!” writer/director Jorge Godinez tells Fango. “I’m from Mexico, but really love American teen movies and pop culture, and I wanted to combine those elements and make something hip, funny and bloody. If I had to describe what I was going for, I would say THE HIERARCHY is like CARRIE meets HEATHERS.”

THE HIERARCHY, produced by Julia Hebner, is set at Crawford Academy, where shy student Marti (Megan Hartig, pictured right with Godinez) is routinely tormented by the school’s top trio of mean girls (Michelle Cutolo,
Elizabeth Venezia and Avery Dresel-Kurtz, 1st photo below left-right), with the complicity of guidance counselor Regina Fletcher (Catherine Mary Stewart of NIGHT OF THE COMET, THE LAST STARFIGHTER and THE APPLE, 2nd photo below). What they don’t know is that Marti, who works in an occult shop run by her Aunt Arielle (Rutanya Alda from AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION, WHEN A STRANGER CALLS and THE DARK HALF), has the ability to call upon supernatural forces that allow her to strike back at her tormentors.

“THE HIERARCHY is my thesis project from the New York Film Academy,” Godinez says. “I love horror movies, but believe it or not, they
don’t get much respect in film school. My directing teacher, Bryan Norton, loves horror too and insisted that I make one. He turned me on to a lot of
great stuff from the ’70s and ’80s, and became my project supervisor and mentor.” Norton, whose own directorial credits include PENNY DREADFUL and the
upcoming JACK ATTACK (see story here) also provided makeup FX for THE HIERARCHY, as seen below; those are Hebner’s hands tearing into the prop head.

Though working on a student budget, Godinez aimed big. “We got together a great crew of fellow students, and shot on this amazing new camera, the Arriflex Alexa,” he explains. “We assembled a good-looking young cast, and genre vets Rutanya Alda and Catherine Mary Stewart. I love NIGHT OF THE COMET, and as an inside joke, Cathy’s character here has the same name. There’s an epic catfight near the end that takes place in the store, so we had to build that on a soundstage; hopefully it´s not obvious. I was meticulous
with the color palette for the costumes, props and locations; the colors are autumnal, and gradually change as the movie progresses.”

Godinez adds that he hopes to continue exploring the HIERARCHY concept as a TV series or feature. You can find further info and see lots more pictures at the movie’s Facebook page.

2013-02-13 15:53:07

About the author

Michael Gingold

Michael Gingold has been a member of the FANGORIA team for the past three decades. After starting as a writer for the magazine in 1988, he came aboard as associate editor in 1990 and two years later moved up to managing editor, the position he holds to this day while continuing to contribute numerous articles and reviews.